Palamu Tiger Reserve Seizes 60kg Pangolin Scales, Busts Wildlife Crime Network Across States

Daltonganj: Around 60 kg pangolin scales were seized by multiple teams of the Palamu Tiger Reserve and interstate divisional forest officers (DFOs) of Balrampur and Jashpur (Chhattisgarh), Darbhanga and Banka (Bihar), Medininagar, Latehar, Gumla, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Palkot (Jharkhand) between Nov 18, 2025 and Jan 20, 2026, deputy director, (north) of Palamu Tiger Reserve, P K Jena, said on Thursday.There were other significant recoveries in this period which include two red sand boa snakes, 2 kg of coral, two deer skins, one leopard skin and two jars of snake venom. The recovery of coral and the skins of leopard and deer was from Bihar state. Among the logistics, the recoveries included three cottage guns, one four-wheeler, one bike, a slingshot, etc.Detailing about it on Thursday at a news meet, Jena said, “The number of arrests in all these wildlife offences is 61. They were forwarded to judicial custody.”The wildlife crime network is deep and well rooted. It is spread over Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand, he added.“Our action or drive is definitely post-commission of wildlife crime. We need a pre-emptive strike,” said the officer. “In Assam, there is an armed-to-the-teeth squad of personnel who guard wildlife with shoot-at-sight orders in the offing. Here we go by the ancient way," he said. He added, “We have urged the state govt to order the formation of an armed platoon of 25 personnel each for the North and South Division of PTR.”However, the Jharkhand govt, in a big way, vested magisterial power with the two deputy directors and range officers in PTR.“With this invocation of magisterial power with the deputy directors and range officers, it is now easier to make recovery of wildlife trophies and other things used in the commission of crime,” said Jena.Asked whether prosecution of wildlife crime offenders is weak following poor investigation of wildlife crime, he conceded, “Prosecution and investigation need to be further sharpened.”Sources said the Jharkhand govt was approached for providing infrastructure facilities, a forensic lab, along with facilities for busting bank accounts or transactions and call details of the smugglers of the wildlife trophies."We appeal to common people to help us trace and track people who are out to kill wildlife for commerce and trade," Jena said.Asked if the Wildlife Protection Act is sufficient enough to tackle wildlife crooks, he said, "The Act is tough to tame such offenders."Jena was accompanied by Ranger Umesh Dubey and two members of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau at his press conference in Daltonganj on Thursday.